The use of weight scales to meter consumable media is known and widely employed. For example, applications employing industrial inkjet printers to print billboard displays or other large printouts need to monitor the consumption of ink during printing. Being able to effectively monitor ink consumption enables print production to determine whether there is enough of a particular ink to create the next billboard or printout.
Weight scales, in the form of strain gauges linked with a controller, have been used to determine a remaining amount of ink or consumable. Other systems have required manually removing a container with a particular consumable such as ink, weighing the consumable separately, cleaning the container housing the consumable, and then reconnecting it to the dispensing device (e.g., the printer). Still other systems have employed off-the-shelf flow sensors to monitor consumption.
These systems, however, have their shortcomings and improvements may be made. In the example systems described, an excess of parts may exist that can require different fittings, resulting in a less uniform system. Further, previous systems may not provide effective automated and integrated mechanisms for metering use of consumable media. Safety of end users can be jeopardized, as additional handling of the consumables and their containers may be required. Furthermore, previous systems do not provide a mechanism to help regulate warranty-repair in the event end users or customers inadvertently or purposely refill consumable containers to continue dispensing. For fluid dispensing applications that dispense at low flows (e.g., inkjet printing), the systems cannot cost-effectively employ off-the-shelf flow sensors.